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Volume VI: November 2013

Harvest Is Done - Let the Celebrations Begin!

Dear friends,

Wow! This has been a harvest to remember! Why, might you ask? Because we had a fantastic growing season, starting this spring and going all the way through some ideal fall weather. The wine grapes are scrumptious, and I can't wait to see what these wines are going to do for us. (Those of you that are club members should have received some cabernet sauvignon wine grapes in the mail last week- weren't they yummy??)

Our Grigsby Vineyard was harvested in the wee hours of the night in the third week of October, and our Collinetta Vineyard was harvested by our wonderful crew last week. We pick at night so that the grapes are cool (make that cold!) when they arrive at the winery for "crush" (by the way, we don't crush the grapes- they enter the tank mostly as whole berries) very early in the morning. That also puts us first in line to use the equipment… which means no sitting on the crush pad getting hot!

Hope you all have had an equally wonderful fall! ~ Mary

Notes From The Winemaker

We have just wrapped up a truly spectacular 2013 harvest. As Tom Gamble of Gamble Family Vineyards puts it, "If you can't make a good bottle of wine from this vintage, look for a different line of work." An unusually dry, warm spring got the ball rolling early, and summer and fall brought some of the most consistently perfect growing conditions in recent memory. The vintage brought only two significant heat spikes. The first, in late June/early July, came too early to cause any appreciable sunburn damage to the grapes. The second, in early September, wasn't severe enough to harm the fruit and only served to turbocharge the ripening process. An unexpected storm on September 21st brought up to 1.5 inches of rain to the wettest sites in the Valley, and made us all sit up and pay attention, but it was immediately followed by sunny, dry, windy weather that precluded any problems. In a nutshell, this vintage has given us the extraordinary gift of enabling us to pick exactly what we wanted, when we wanted, at perfect ripeness and ideal hang time, with no constraints imposed by weather concerns. Even as I write this we are enjoying glorious "Indian Summer" conditions, with forecasts calling for at least another 10 days of dry, sunny weather in the 80s. At Rocca Family Vineyards we expect to bring in the last of our Cabernet by the end of next week, and we couldn't be more thrilled with the quality we're seeing so far -- thorough ripeness, profound aromatics, explosive flavors, and tons of color and gorgeously resolved tannins. We've already heard multiple growers compare 2012 and 2013 to 2001 and 2002: back-to-back spectacular vintages, with different but equally compelling personalities.

Now, what the heck do we do for an encore in 2014???

Holiday Gift Ideas From Rocca Family Vineyards!

Looking for that perfect gift for your discriminating friends, family and business asociates? Let Rocca Family Vineyards provide you with simple, elegant and delicious solutions from our library of award-winning wines. All gifts come hand-packaged in your choice of a 2-bottle Holiday gift box or a 3-bottle customized wood box.

Place your order here by December 1st, 2013, to receive complimentary shipping to locations within the continental United States.

Need assistance with large orders, custom orders or Corporate Gifting? For personal service, call John Taylor at 707-257-8467, or email your requests to John@RoccaWines.com.

Here And There...

The 3rd Annual Flavor! Napa Valley, one of the nation's premiere food & wine events, returns November 20th through the 24th. Rocca Family Vineyards is proud to be participating this year in both The Appellation Trail event and Winemaker's Dinner. You can learn more about this amazing culinary adventure by going to www.FlavorNapaValley.com...We took some great pictures and even some video of this year's harvest. You can check it out by clicking here...and speaking of pictures, have you followed us on Instagram yet?

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